Rajkot, Jun 17 (IANS): South Africa wicketkeeper-opener Quinton de Kock returned to the playing eleven after recovering from a wrist injury as captain Temba Bavuma won the toss and elected to bowl first against an unchanged India in the fourth T20I at the Saurashtra Cricket Association stadium here on Friday. South Africa are currently leading the five-match series 2-1.

After winning the toss for the fourth straight time in the series, Bavuma said apart from de Kock replacing Reeza Hendricks at the top, pacers Kagiso Rabada and Wayne Parnell miss out due to injuries and are replaced by Lungi Ngidi and debutant left-arm pacer Marco Jansen.

"To be honest we are not sure how the wicket is going to play, not much stats behind it. But we are chasing well and backing our strength. We have heard it is quite a good wicket and the scores were high in the domestic games. Par score is about 180 and we are hoping the wicket gets better. Hopefully, we have a lot more (runs) coming from the top and the guys keep going in the middle," said Bavuma.

India skipper Rishabh Pant said his side were looking to bowl first as well. India need to win in Rajkot to take the five-match series to a decider in Bengaluru on Sunday. "The only thing we are focusing on is our process and are not thinking this is a must-win game. We are trying to increase our run rate in the middle-overs and that's what we are trying to achieve as a team," stated Pant.

Playing XIs:

India: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (captain & wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan and Yuzvendra Chahal

South Africa: Temba Bavuma (captain), Quinton de Kock (wicketkeeper), Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, Keshav Maharaj, Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi and Anrich Nortje